“Aviation and poetry bowed over his cradle. He was probably the only modern writer who was touched by true fame. His life is a whole series of triumphs. But he never knew peace.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born 115 years ago. Aviator, essayist and poet. The man who said: "Before you write, you need to live."
“How could you not love him? exclaimed André Maurois. - He possessed both strength and tenderness, intelligence and intuition. He fought in the air in 1940 and fought again in 1944. He was lost in the desert and was rescued by the lords of the sands; once he fell into the Mediterranean Sea, and another time - on the mountain ranges of Guatemala. Hence the authenticity that sounds in his every word, from here the life stoicism originates, for the deed reveals the best qualities of a person.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery 1900 - 1944
Antoine de Saint-Exupery (fully Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry, fr. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) was born on June 29, 1900 in the French city of Lyon in the family of a provincial count. At the age of four, he lost his father.
Exupery's family castle was built in the early Middle Ages from large round boulders, and in the 18th century it was rebuilt. “Once upon a time, gentlemen de Saint-Exupery sat out the raids of English archers, robber knights and their own peasants here, and at the beginning of the 20th century, the rather dilapidated castle sheltered the widowed Countess Marie de Saint-Exupery and her five children.
Mother and daughters occupied the first floor, the boys settled on the third. A huge entrance hall and a mirrored living room, portraits of ancestors, knightly armor, precious tapestries, upholstered with damask furniture with half-worn gilding - the old house was full of treasures. Behind the house was a hayloft, behind the hayloft a huge park, behind the park stretched fields still belonging to his family.
The upbringing of little Antoine was carried out by his mother. He studied unevenly, glimpses of a genius appeared in him, but it was noticeable that this student was not created for schoolwork. In the family, he is called the Sun King because of the blond hair crowning his head; comrades nicknamed Antoine the Astrologer, because his nose was upturned to the sky.
Not far from Saint-Maurice, in Amberier, there was an airfield, and Antoine often went there by bicycle. When he was twelve, he had a chance to fly on an airplane, and Antoine received an "air baptism". This event is usually associated with the name of Jules Vedrine. No one knows how this version was born, because neither one nor the other ever talked about it. But, apparently, she turned out to be quite beautiful: Vedrin was a famous aviator, a war hero, and in general a bright personality, and therefore the version began to be repeated without checking. Only recently was the only documentary evidence discovered, namely, a postcard depicting the first aircraft and the pilot who "gave an air baptism." And signed by Antoine himself. The truth turned out to be no worse than the legend.
The postcard shows the monoplane LBerthaud-W (Bertha is the name of the industrialist who financed the development), created in 1911 by the brothers Peter and Gabriel Wroblewski. This promising design, alas, did not "conquer the sky." Talented aviator brothers were not destined to live up to the era of the domination of metal monoplanes - on March 2, 1912, they died in a test flight on the third and last copy of their car, after which work on it was stopped.
Gabriel Wroblewski (it was he who "christened" Antoine in July 1912) received his pilot's diploma just a month before this event that went down in history. The diploma had the number 891. Saint-Exupery's flying career began only nine years later, after the First World War, but it was then, in his first and only "children's" flight, that he, one might say, joined the spirit of "childhood" of aviation itself. An airplane of self-taught engineers ahead of its time, pilots, timid flights for the sake of the very fact of overcoming gravity, and, finally, an aura of mystery and achievement - all this could not but leave a deep imprint on the young soul.
Childhood ended when his beloved brother Francois died of a fever. He bequeathed to Antoine a bicycle and a gun, took communion and departed to another world - Saint-Exupery forever remembered his calm and stern face. Exupery graduated from the Jesuit school at Le Mans, studied at a Catholic boarding school in Switzerland, and in 1917 entered the Paris School of Fine Arts at the Faculty of Architecture.
“One has only to grow up, and the merciful God leaves you to the mercy of fate,” Saint-Exupery will express this sad thought much later, when he is thirty years old, but it also applies to the entire first period of life in Paris. Now he lives a real bohemian life. This is the most deaf period of his life - Antoine does not even write to his mother, experiencing everything that happens to him, deep in himself. He still meets and argues with friends, visits the Lippa restaurant, goes to lectures, reads a lot, replenishing his knowledge in literature. Among the books that attract him especially are the books of Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Plato.
And although we do not know what exactly Antoine was talking about then, one can guess that his trial was very harsh. When, many years later, a secular lady who knew Saint-Exupery in his twenty years was asked to tell about him, she said: "Exupery? Yes, he was a communist!"
Antoine de Saint-Exupery in 1921, having interrupted the deferral he received when he entered a higher educational institution, quits his studies at the Faculty of Architecture and enlisted as a volunteer in the 2nd Aviation Regiment in Strasbourg with the rank of private. At first, the volunteer is listed as an aircraft mechanic. Luckily for him, the 2nd Aviation Regiment was led by Major Guard, the most charming commander you could wish for. In the past, a huntsman on foot, who became a fighter pilot during the war, he was well versed in people. His officers were a match for him. The discipline in the regiment was not distinguished by strictness - the atmosphere of comradeship of a combat squadron, preserved from the time of the war, still reigned here. And soon a significant change takes place in the position of Saint-Exupery. He becomes a civilian pilot, after which he is trained as a military pilot. Strange wording, but there is no mistake in it. However, to understand this, some comments are required.
Here is what Robert Aeby, Saint-Aix's first flight instructor, says:
"It happened in April 1921, on Sunday, at the Neuhof airfield. On a beautiful spring morning, we took out of the hangar all the planes of the Transaerien company - one Farman, three Sopwith and one Salmson. Five planes for the company in which I was the only pilot ... True, the Mosse brothers - Gaston and Victor - co-directors, were also pilots.
We hoped to get the Strasbourg - Brussels - Anver line, but the competitors were ahead of us. Then the company was transformed and now offered clients flights on demand, christenings, aerial photography. Especially baptisms.
The client was just approaching. He was not dressed very well - a cap, a scarf around his neck, trousers without pleats.
- Can I get an air baptism?
- Yes... But it will cost 50 francs.
- Agree!
And he settles in "Farman". I make a circle with him. Ten minutes, on the usual route. I sit down, drive to the hangar, get out of the plane.
- And again?
- But it will cost you another 50 francs!
- Yes Yes! I agree.
And we flew. This time I showed him what he wanted - the north and south of Strasbourg, the Voss, the Rhine. He was delighted. I didn't know his name yet. After landing, I asked him to write down his name on paper. Then I read: Antoine de Saint-Exupery. He also said that he was assigned to the 2nd Fighter Aviation Regiment (his hangars were located next to ours) for military service.
After a while, he reappeared, but already in military uniform...
- Do you recognize me?
- Well, of course.
And without further ado: - Can I fly myself?
- You can always, but to be able to fly, you must be able to fly! You need to get trained.
- That's exactly what I wanted to know... Is it possible here?
Yes, but under certain conditions. First of all, you need the permission of your commander, because he is responsible for you. And then, it is necessary to agree with the director about the price.
A few days later, the commander of the unit, Colonel Gard, agreed, against all the rules, as an exception (there was definitely something incredible here), to allow the young soldier to learn to pilot.
June 18, 1921, Saturday. On this day (one might say, it was almost a historical date!), Saint-Exupery made his first flight with an instructor on the LFarman-40.
According to my flight book, the second flight that day was followed by a third ... And the lessons continued, to the satisfaction of the student and teacher. Two weeks later we already had 21 export flights and 2 hours 5 minutes. flight time. Unexpectedly, we had to leave the Farman, whose engine gave its soul to God, and I transferred my pet to the Sopwith, a more rigorous piloting machine. On Friday, July 8, I took him out twice on this new aircraft.
The next day at 11 o'clock I once again took out Saint-Exupery on the Sopwith One and a half rack. At 11:10 a.m. we were at the start for the second flight. I got out of the front seat.
- Take off! One. I'm letting you out. When it's time to land, I'll launch a green rocket. Let's go!
He started fine. Taxiing smooth, takeoff flawless, here he is climbing, turning right to the left, going downwind, finishing the circle of the lane ... I launch a green rocket ... He is coming in for a landing, but too high and too fast ... Five meters to the ground - and now he will either "skip" the lane, or lose speed and fall into a tailspin - but he does the only thing that remains in such cases - he accelerates again. Saint-Exupery confidently starts the second "box" - it seems that this little incident did not unbalance him - and when I send the green rocket again, he enters normally, lands beautifully, and returns the plane to the hangar.
In the afternoon I went to Colonel Gard and reported that I had released Private Saint-Exupery. He thought, looked at some papers in the folder, and dropped:
- Stop there.
Our joint flights to Transaerien are over.
The soldier in love with the sky managed to persuade the commanders to take another unprecedented step - to allow him to fly as a pilot (including the new two-seat SPFD-20 Erbemon fighters) and train as an air gunner, again, without being appointed to the appropriate position.
Well, soon the amateur experience was repeated at a new qualitative level and accordingly documented. Having learned about the recruitment of volunteers for service in the 37th Fighter Wing, based in Morocco, Saint-Exupery immediately filed a report. There he rose to the rank of corporal, but most importantly, he trained as a fighter. He passed his exams with excellent marks, and he is offered to enter the school of reserve officers, where he meets his old friend Jean Esco. Let's give him the floor...
"On April 3, 1922, Saint-Exupéry was accepted as a cadet at the Air Force Reserve Officer School in Avora. The most urgent thing for us then was to find out how we could resume flights. Indeed, the program, the crown of which was the diploma of the letnab, included theory (navigation, meteorology , communications, combat use) and flying practice, but precisely as a letnab. In the end, we were announced that we could fly as pilots before the start of classes, that is, from 6 to 8 in the morning. So our days were filled to overflowing. At the end of the internship, high graduation scores gave us the opportunity to choose the place of future service ourselves. It turned out that we had the same reflex - to be closer to home. And having received the rank of junior lieutenant, we each went our separate ways - he was in the 34th air regiment in Bourges, and I - in Lyon-Bron, in the 35th.
For two years of military service, Saint-Exupery received as a result a unique training - impossible in other, seemingly more favorable conditions - he mastered piloting a wide variety of aircraft, was a navigator, a pilot, and a gunner, studied the use of aviation. But besides all this, he was also a mechanic ...
Thus, Exupery received his pilot's license in 1922.
Soon after moving to Paris, he turned to writing. However, in this field, at first he did not win laurels for himself and was forced to take on any job: he traded cars, was a salesman in a bookstore.
In 1926, Saint-Ex again began his career as a pilot, now a civilian, from the workshops of the Aeropostal company, which delivered mail to the northern coast of Africa. His first flight in a mail plane took place in October 1926. Two years later he was appointed head of the airport in Cap Juby, on the very edge of the Sahara, and there, at last, he found that inner peace, which his later books are full of.
Didier Dora, director of Latecoera Airlines, recalls:
“I accepted Saint-Exupery and from the very first day forced him to submit to the regime common to all his fellow pilots: at first they all had to work side by side with the mechanics. Just like the mechanics, he bugged the engines, dirty. .. hands with grease. He never grumbled, was not afraid of menial work, and soon I was convinced that he won the respect of the workers ...
The school of ground services came in handy for Saint-Exupery in his personal life, more precisely, when he got his own plane. I will not go into details, but I will say one thing - he did not live well then, but he owned an airplane. At that time, civil aviation was barely spreading its wings; few foresaw then its amazing flowering. Just at that time, aviators were in honor. The general public believed that they were all some kind of eccentrics, adventurers, though cute, but what drives them and what they aspire to is unclear.
Yes, public opinion considered it a gamble, yes, it required courage, but it was justified and based on accurate calculations. Saint-Exupery belonged to the cohort of the most sought-after people in aviation at that time - those who combine courage and composure, have logical thinking. Here is how his work in Cap-Juby was assessed by his superiors:
"Exceptional data, a pilot of rare courage, an excellent master of his craft, showed remarkable composure and rare selflessness. The head of the airfield in Cap Juby, in the desert, surrounded by hostile tribes, constantly risking his life, performing his duties with devotion that is beyond praise. Spent several brilliant operations.Repeatedly flew over the most dangerous areas, looking for pilots Rena and Serra taken prisoner by hostile tribes.Rescued from the area occupied by an extremely militant population, the wounded crew of a Spanish aircraft, which almost fell into the hands of the Moors.Unhesitatingly endured the harsh conditions of work in desert, daily risked his life. With his zeal, devotion, noble dedication, he made a huge contribution to the cause of French aeronautics, significantly contributed to the success of our civil aviation ... "
In 1929, Exupery became head of his airline branch in Buenos Aires. In 1931, he marries the widow of the Spanish writer Gomez Carrillo - Consuelo, a native of South America.
In 1931 he returned to Europe, again flew on postal lines, was also a test pilot.
In 1934-1935, he worked as an officer at large for the Air France company in Asia, from Turkey to Vietnam, where he preferred, so to speak, "with or without reason" to travel by airplane. The books described many times forced landings in the desert, a little less emergency splashdowns of seaplanes. But in practice there was a very interesting case.
“His first trip to Cambodia was interrupted by an accident, the engine failed when he flew over the flooded forests in the Mekong basin. Waiting for a rescue boat, Saint-Exupery and his friend Pierre Godillier spent the night among this chaotic mixing of water and land, talking peacefully to itchy singing mosquitoes and the croaking of frogs.
Since the mid 1930s. He also acted as a journalist, in particular, in 1935 he visited Moscow as a correspondent for Paris-Soir and described this visit in five interesting essays. On May 20, 1935, an article was published in the Izvestiya newspaper, which speaks for itself: "On the driving force."
I flew on a plane "Maxim Gorky" shortly before his death. These corridors, this salon, these cabins, this powerful roar of eight engines, this internal telephone connection - everything was not like the air environment familiar to me. But even more than the technical excellence of the aircraft, I admired the young crew and the impulse that was common to all these people. I admired their seriousness and the inner joy with which they worked ... The feelings that overwhelmed these people seemed to me a more powerful driving force than the power of the giant's eight magnificent motors. Deeply shocked, I am experiencing the mourning in which Moscow is immersed today. I, too, lost friends whom I had only just recognized, but who already seemed infinitely close to me. Alas, they will never again laugh in the face of the wind, these young and strong people. I know that this tragedy was not caused by a technical error, not by the ignorance of the builders or the oversight of the crew. This tragedy is not one of those tragedies that can make people doubt their abilities. There was no giant aircraft. But the country and the people who created it will be able to bring to life even more amazing ships - miracles of technology.
There was one enterprise in Antoine's biography that can be called truly adventurous. The story of its completion - the 1935 accident in the Libyan desert - entered the "Planet of the People", but this, as they say, is a few inches. But the roots ... Saint-Ex learned about a large cash prize for the Paris-Saigon route record and decided to accept the challenge - at that time he really needed money. True, there was no time (and, in fact, funds) for preparation, but he took a chance. There was not even a radio station on the plane, which was removed to take an extra canister of gasoline, and if it were not for that random Bedouin ... Truly, Fate, which can be seen, would have liked the further continuation of his work!
The second flight New York - Tierra del Fuego in 1938 was prepared according to all the rules, but at the Guatemalan airfield some kind of "Bedouin" - a tanker mistakenly poured too much fuel into the tanks. Heat, rarefied air (the airfield was located almost 1.5 km above sea level) and a short strip left no chance - the overloaded car collapsed, barely leaving the ground. Saint-Exupéry and his mechanic, Prevost, are removed from the rubble and hospitalized. There was no fault of the organizers and the crew here. Apparently it's fate again.
He also went to war in Spain as a correspondent. In 1937, Saint-Exupéry flew from Paris-Soir to Spain, engulfed in civil war, on his own plane. He was not a "Spanish pilot", but his task was no less important. The great powers tested new weapons there - "information warfare" technologies - and the appearance on the fronts of an unprecedented number of world-famous cultural figures (Saint-Ex was just one of many famous writers, journalists, film directors, etc.) is far from accidental. The tests were successful - never before had the word had such an impact on the course of the war - and later Saint-Exupery would use this power to attract the United States to liberate France from the Nazis.
In March 1939, Saint-Exupery went to the Third Reich. “He returned to Paris the next day after the Germans entered Prague, refusing the promised meeting with Goering - he didn’t want to stay in a hostile state for an hour longer, the head of which had already thrown off his mask,” wrote Georges Polissier. “Who produces so many cars and leaves without shelter, in the rain and wind, if he does not think to put them into action immediately! Dear friend, this is war!
A little-known chapter of Saint-Exupery's life related to the war concerns his activity as an inventor. Even before the start of active hostilities, he developed the principle of night camouflage of ground objects with the help of ... light.
At the beginning of the war, Polissier wrote, flying at night over darkened Toulouse, he noticed that on a clear night one could discern the entire layout of the city, down to the smallest detail, and it was not difficult to drop bombs on any target. The blackout masked Toulouse very poorly. The flood-lit Buenos Aires he saw on the mail flight was superbly sheltered. Therefore, in order to mask the city, it is better not to darken it, but to illuminate it. But this is only at worst. Thus, you hide individual details, but you reveal the whole purpose. And Saint-Ex immediately finds a great way to confuse the enemy: you have to blind him! He will never recognize cities and individual targets at night if they are flooded with a wide band of very bright, evenly distributed lights. Saint-Ex developed his project comprehensively, down to the finest technical details...
Military specialists became interested in his invention... The first practical tests gave excellent results. But this experience could not be continued: it was interrupted by the German invasion.
It was he who proposed to deal with the freezing of machine guns at high altitudes, using a special lubricant that would absorb condensing vapors and, accordingly, prevent the weapon from jamming. It is said that he foresaw the future dominance of jet engines, the advent of radar and even nuclear weapons, but here he acted more like a deep thinker with the ability of an engineer.
By the beginning of the "strange war" in 1939, Antoine had enough authority to somehow influence his appointment during mobilization. And he asked to be a fighter - fortunately, there was experience in maneuverable air combat. In addition, the single-seat fighter ideally corresponded to his ideas about the fight - one on one, eye to eye with the enemy, when the outcome of the battle depends entirely on the skill of the pilot, his unity with his car ...
However, the age and results of the medical examination (plus the desire of the country's leadership to save the famous writer) allowed him only to get on bombers, and even then as an instructor in a training unit. Of course, this did not satisfy him. In addition, as friends recalled, he did not accept for himself the very concept of bomber aircraft, "bringing death blindly, to everyone indiscriminately." Saint-Ex continues to harass the command by all means and, in the end, he is sent to the combat squadron 2/33, the pilot of the Bloch B.174 - a long-range reconnaissance aircraft, created on the basis of the bomber.
But the most interesting thing is that then this situation repeated itself. After the surrender, Saint-Ex sought to be sent to the Eastern Front, to the Normandie squadron, but was refused.
At the beginning of World War II, Saint-Exupery made several sorties and was presented with an award ("Military Cross" (Croix de Guerre)).
In July 1940, when there were only a few days left before the armistice (as the French politicians preferred to call the surrender of their country), in the 2/33 group, in which Saint-Ex was fighting, they were ordered to evacuate to Algiers, and he makes a desperate attempt to at least something to help continue the fight against Nazism.
In Bordeaux, straight from the factory, he takes a large four-engine "Farman-223" and, having loaded into it several dozen "irreconcilable" French and Polish aviators, heads south. But soon a truce is signed in North Africa, and he leaves for the United States.
Now, for Saint-Exupéry, only the word is a weapon. In 1942, "Military Pilot" was published. It is curious that this book is immediately banned both by the Nazis and the puppet government of Vichy, and ... de Gaulle's supporters. Moreover, the former are for propaganda of disobedience and resistance, while the latter are for supposedly "defeatist moods." However, it continues to be published underground.
“I visited him on Long Island in a large house that they rented with Consuelo. Saint-Exupery worked at night. After dinner he talked, told, showed card tricks, then, closer to midnight, when others went to bed, he sat down at the desk. I fell asleep. At two o'clock in the morning I was awakened by shouts on the stairs: "Consuelo! Consuelo! .. I'm hungry ... Cook me scrambled eggs. " Consuelo descended from her room. Finally waking up, I joined them, and Saint-Exupery spoke again, and he spoke very well. Having had his fill, he again sat down to work. We tried to fall asleep again, but the sleep was short-lived, for in two hours the whole house was filled with loud cries: “Consuelo! I'm bored. Let's play chess." He then read to us the newly written pages, and Consuelo, herself a poet, prompted skilfully invented episodes."
In New York, among other things, he wrote his most famous book, The Little Prince (1942, published 1943).
And in 1943 he took up arms again, arriving in North Africa with the American Expeditionary Force. The Americans appointed him as co-pilot on the B-26 bomber - again, in a unit that, as they say, "did not shine" with active hostilities. But the tireless St. Ex achieved a return to his squadron. This time, it was armed with Lockheed P-38F-4 and P-38F-5 aircraft - reconnaissance variants of the Lightning. Unlike the low-speed V..174, the Lightnings felt much more at ease in the military skies of Europe. Even the lack of weapons did not interfere - they easily evaded any persecution. At least almost anyone. Indeed, only a few types of the latest German machines could compete with them in speed and altitude. But the Focke-Wulf FW-190D-9 belonged to just such. “Antoine demanded that all flights to the Annessy area, where he spent his childhood, remain with him. But none of them went well, and the last flight of Major de Saint-Exupery ended there. The first time he barely eluded the fighters, in the second, he passed the oxygen device and he had to descend to a height dangerous for an unarmed scout, in the third, one of the engines failed.Before the fourth flight, the fortuneteller predicted that he would die in sea water, and Saint-Exupery, laughingly telling his friends about it, noticed that she most likely mistook him for a sailor."
And on July 31, 1944, a pair of German fighters successfully intercepted a Lightning-type reconnaissance aircraft off the French coast, which "... after the battle caught fire and fell into the sea," according to German radio. On that day, Major de Saint-Exupery left the Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica on a reconnaissance flight and did not return from the mission. His route passed just in this area ...
For a long time, nothing was known about his death. And only in 1998, in the sea near Marseille, one fisherman discovered a bracelet. It had several inscriptions: "Antoine", "Consuelo" (that was the name of the pilot's wife) and "c/o Reynal & Hitchcock, 386, 4th Ave. NYC USA. This was the address of the publishing house where Saint-Exupery's books were published.
In May 2000, diver Luc Vanrel announced that he had found the wreckage of an aircraft at a depth of 70 meters, possibly belonging to Saint-Exupery. The remains of the aircraft were scattered over a strip a kilometer long and 400 meters wide. Almost immediately, the French government banned any searches in the area. Permission was received only in the fall of 2003. Specialists raised fragments of the aircraft. One of them turned out to be part of the cockpit, the serial number of the aircraft was preserved: 2734-L. According to the American military archives, scientists compared all the numbers of aircraft that disappeared during this period. So, it turned out that the tail serial number 2734-L corresponds to the aircraft, which was listed in the US Air Force under the number 42-68223, that is, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning aircraft, a modification of the F-4 (long-range photographic reconnaissance aircraft), which was flown by Exupery.
The journals of the German Air Force do not contain records of aircraft shot down in this area on July 31, 1944, and the wreckage itself does not have obvious signs of shelling. This gave rise to many versions of the crash, including versions of a technical malfunction and the pilot's suicide. According to press releases in March 2008, German Luftwaffe veteran Horst Rippert, 88, claimed to have shot down Antoine Saint-Exupery's plane. According to his statements, he did not know who was at the controls of the enemy aircraft: "I did not see the pilot, only later I found out that it was Saint-Exupery."
The books of Antoine de Saint-Exupery, a French aviator and writer, have been enjoying well-deserved popularity 65 years after his death. Most of the publications, in addition to the works themselves, contain articles by literary critics and researchers that tell about the life of the "flying prophet of the twentieth century", his character, worldview.
They almost always, one way or another, say that "we will not be able to fully understand the work of Saint-Exupery without understanding what aviation was for him." However, it is the facts from his flight biography that are still among the little-known.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery lit his star. She will forever shine over the Planet of Humans, serving as a beacon on the path of all romantics and seekers of Truth.
Literary awards
* 1930 - Femina - for the novel "Night Flight";
* 1939 - Grand Prix du Roman of the French Academy - "Wind, sand and stars";
* 1939 - US National Book Award - "Wind, Sand and Stars".
Military awards
In 1939 he was awarded the Military Cross of the French Republic.
Names in honor
* Aéroport Lyon-Saint-Exupéry in Lyon;
* Asteroid 2578 Saint-Exupéry, discovered by astronomer Tatyana Smirnova (discovered November 2, 1975 under the number "B612");
Antoine de Saint-Exupery is known to the whole world, mainly thanks to his philosophical work "The Little Prince". But what kind of person was Exupery? The biography of this writer-pilot is very little known to many, despite the fact that his fate is full of interesting twists and turns. It contained dramatic love, great friendships, and adventures, many of which are reflected in his books.
The Saint-Exupéry family
The biography of the future writer begins in the French city of Lyon, where he was born on June 29, 1900. He was the third child of the Comte de Saint-Exupery and his wife. In just 4 years of marriage, the couple managed to acquire two daughters, Marie-Madeleine and Simone, and a son. Soon after Antoine, his brother Francois was born, and two years later, his younger sister Gabrielle de Saint-Exupery.
The biography of the future writer was soon clouded. Immediately after the birth of his youngest daughter, Jean de Saint-Exupery, whom George Sand herself dubbed a real French chevalier, died, leaving his wife alone with five children and without a livelihood.
Antoine Exupery: a short biography. Childhood
After the death of their father and husband, the family settles with Aunt Marie in Lyon on Bellecour Square, but often the children stay at their grandmother's castle, where Queen Margot herself once visited.
Despite the poverty, the family is very friendly, and all the children get along well with each other. Of course, Antoine is attached to his sisters, but his true friendship is with his younger brother Francois. She adores her little son and his mother, she calls him the Sun King for his light curls, upturned nose and easy character, which remained with Exupery for life.
His biography is full of memoirs of his contemporaries and family that the boy grew up very cheerful and inquisitive, adored animals, and also loved to delve into engines, perhaps this is where his love for aviation came from, which will develop much later.
Education
At the age of 8, Antoine entered a Christian school in Lyon, and after that, together with his brother, he continued his education at the Jesuit College in Montreux. The next stage is a college in Switzerland, where the boy entered at the age of 14. Having received a bachelor's degree in three years, the young man plans to enter the Naval Lyceum in Paris, even attends preparatory courses, but does not stand up to the competition.
When Antoine turns 17, his brother François dies unexpectedly from articular rheumatism. The young man is very upset by the loss of a person close to him, he withdraws into himself.
After failing the exams at the military lyceum, Saint-Exupery was forced to be content with attending lectures on architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Getting to know the sky Pilot
Exupery, whose biography is inextricably linked with the sky, dreamed of him since childhood. The first flight happened in his life when he was only 12 years old. The famous pilot Gabriel Wroblewski, despite the prohibitions of Antoine's mother, took him with him to the air field in Amberie. This short flight impressed the boy so much that it left a mark on his whole life.
However, the next chance to get closer to heaven was presented to him only at the age of 21, when he joined the army and became a soldier of Exupery. From that moment on, his biography is full of flights. First, he enrolled in an aviation regiment in Strasbourg, where he was assigned as a non-flying soldier in repair shops. However, the sky beckoned him, and de Saint-Exupery decided to pass the exam for a civilian pilot. In parallel with the service, he learns to fly, and at the end of the year he is transferred to Casablanca, where he passes the exam and receives the rank of officer.
During this period, he writes in his diaries that he has an irresistible desire to fly. Soon after receiving the opportunity to be a civilian pilot, he also receives the right to fly a military aircraft, and then, having received the rank of second lieutenant in the reserve, he is transferred to serve in an aviation regiment near Paris.
In 23, Exupery gets into his first accident, gets severely injured and temporarily ties up with aviation. He works at a tile factory, sells trucks, until fate finally gives him a chance to realize the young man's second passion and talent - writing.
First attempts at pen
Antoine began to write quite early and immediately successfully - his first work, the fairy tale "Odyssey of the Top Hat", written by him in college in 1914, receives first prize in a literary competition.
However, the door to serious literature will open for him much later. In 1925, Antoine, at the invitation of his cousin, comes to her salon, where he meets writers and publishers. They are literally fascinated by the young man and his work and offer to publish his stories. And already in April of the following year, his story “Pilot” was published in the magazine “Silver Ship”.
Return to the sky
The first public success brings Exupery to the wealthy businessman de Massima, who introduces him to the leadership of the Aeropostal airline. At first, Exupery worked only as a mechanic, and then as a mail plane pilot. And he began to fly not just anywhere, but to Africa. Soon he becomes the head of a small airport in the city of Cap Juby in the heart of the Sahara desert. To the surprised questions of his relatives about his fate and career as a writer, he always answered that in order to write, you first need to live. And life here is amazing. In addition to the main work, Saint-Ex, as his friends came up with to call him, uses all his diplomatic talents and either reconciles the warring African tribes with each other, or pacifies the warlike Moors, or rescues crashed pilots from their captivity, or even tames a wild fox.
This work and travels to new amazing places did not change the character of Exupery. His big kind heart was ready to give everything to people. He spent money and time helping his friends and family, helping them solve their problems, and believed that hatred could only be overcome with love. Thanks to this work, Antoine has his closest friends - Jean Mermoz and Henri Guillaume. Together they will make a significant contribution to the development of aviation not only in Europe, but also in Africa and even in South America.
New points on the map
After Africa, Exupery briefly returns to France, where he begins to collaborate with book publishers, and also improves his pilot skills. And soon a new appointment - the branch of the airline "Aeropostal" in South America, in Buenos Aires. Regular night flights over Casablanca - this is the main work that Antoine Exupery performs.
A brief biography of the further period of his life was marked by the financial collapse of his native airline in 31, after which Exupery left her. Later, he works on the postal lines linking Dakar, Marseille and Algiers, tests new seaplanes and again gets into a serious accident. He miraculously survives, and divers find him with difficulty. And his next accident happened soon in Saigon, in the Mekong valley.
In 33, Exupery entered the service of the Paris-Soir newspaper, where he became a correspondent. Among other countries, he visits the USSR, where he meets Bulgakov. Exupery's essays on the Soviet Union are a great success with readers. Soon he organizes a large air tour over the Mediterranean to promote aviation.
Crash plans
Being not only a pilot, but also an inventor, he, having borrowed money, buys an airplane and participates in the development of a project for a high-speed flight from Paris to Saigon. He is in a hurry, because in order to get money for the task, you need to complete it before December 31st. On the night of December 30, Exupery, along with his mechanic, crashed in the Libyan desert, miraculously did not die, and tried to survive for several more days without food and water. They are rescued by nomadic Bedouins.
The last serious accident occurs on a flight from New York to Tierra del Fuego. For several days after the accident, the pilot was in a coma, he had serious head injuries and other injuries, so he can no longer put on a parachute on his own due to a shoulder injury. A brief biography of de Saint-Exupery is literally full of such accidents.
Literary success
While still working in the hot deserted Cap Juby, Antoine writes his first great work at night, the book “Southern Postal”. In 29, returning to France, Exupery signed an agreement with the publishing house of Gaston Gallimard to publish seven of his novels. The second work is "Night Flight" written in Argentina. In 1931, Exupery received the prestigious Femina Award for this novel, and a year later, American filmmakers made a full-length film based on it.
The adventures and travels that befell Exupery have always been reflected in his works. So, the accident in the Libyan desert and subsequent wanderings through it formed the basis of the novel "Land of the People". Influenced the work and the trip to the USSR, which made Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
A short biography, but full of experiences, is also included in the novel “Military Pilot”. It is inspired by World War II. Taking a direct part in it and doing everything in his power, Exupery puts all his confusion, all his mental anguish into the book. In the United States, it is a huge success, and in her native France, she is banned by censorship. On the wave of popularity from America comes an order for a children's fairy tale. In the course of work, the writer creates his most famous work - "The Little Prince" with author's illustrations.
Personal life
Exupery, whose biography (short) would not have been disclosed without personal relationships, truly loved only two women. Despite the subtle mental organization and, of course, the lyrical character, Antoine was not very lucky with the girls. At 18, he first met the one he fell in love with. Her name was Louise, and she was the sister of his comrade. Louise came from a noble wealthy family and had a very absurd and capricious character. Antoine, having fallen in love with her without a memory, made an offer, but did not receive a definite answer. Some time later, when the young man was in the hospital with his first injury, he learned about the final break of the engagement. It was a strong blow for him. And Louise only considered him a loser, even the literary success that Antoine de Exupery received did not change her opinion.
The biography of a tall, stately, handsome and charming French pilot, however, could not do without the attention of women, but he himself, having once experienced disappointment, was in no hurry to start novels. At the same time, he was also worried that he was wasting his youth and life. In letters to his mother, he complained that he could not meet a woman who could calm his anxiety.
However, Antoine Exupery soon met such a woman. His biography at that time continues in Buenos Aires, where the writer meets Consuelo Carrilo. It is not known exactly how they met, but it must be assumed that they were introduced by a mutual friend, writer Benjamin Crepier. Consuelo was the widow of the writer Gomez Carrilo and had a rather complex character. A short, swarthy, not too beautiful woman was nevertheless the center of attention. She carried herself proudly and arrogantly, like a queen, was well educated, well-read and intelligent. She brought confusion into Exupery's life, pestering him with violent scandals and tantrums, but it seemed that this was all he lacked.
The uneasy love of a writer
The memoirs of Ksenia Kuprina, the daughter of the Russian writer A. Kuprin, are curious. She met Consuelo in Paris and was fascinated by her intelligence and grace. One day, an Argentinian called Xenia in the middle of the night and begged her to come. She told a 19-year-old girl the story that she met an amazing man, whom she fell in love with incredibly much. But they are not destined to be together, as he was shot by the revolutionaries right in front of her eyes. Shocked, Kuprina took Consuelo to her country house and consoled her friend for several days, literally pulling her out of the lake, in which she wanted to drown herself with obsessive persistence.
What was the indignation of Kuprina when it turned out that the shot lover was Exupery, while alive and unharmed. Consuelo was so angry with him and wanted to leave that she thought he was dead and made others believe in it.
They got married just a few months after they met, but pretty soon their life together ceased to be joyful and happy. Consuelo literally went crazy, bullying her husband with her antics. She either put up a fight and threw dishes in front of guests, then went to bars until the morning and told vile false stories about her spouse. However, he endured everything with a smile and calmness. Perhaps only he knew what she really was, and saw the other side of her unbearable character. Be that as it may, this love was as devoted and passionate as on the first day they met.
World War II period
Antoine de Saint-Exupery, whose biography also falls on the war years, ended up at 37 in Nazi Germany. He was unpleasantly shocked by what Nazism does to people. When England and France declare war on Germany, Exupery is determined to serve on the ground for health reasons, but he connected all communications and was assigned to an aviation reconnaissance group.
After living and working in the United States in 1944, Exupery returned to his homeland again, but was not allowed to intelligence activities, as he was already in the reserve. And again you have to connect connections. Despite serious health problems, he is allowed to make 5 more flights to get pictures of the area. On July 31, an aircraft flew on a mission, piloted by Antoine Saint-Exupery. The biography of the writer ends at this moment, since the plane did not return at the appointed time. Only 60 years later, in 2004, the remains of the kindest writer on the planet were raised and identified from the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea.
A descendant of an old French family, one of the pioneers of aviation, a talented writer, humanist thinker, inventor and hero, Exupery belongs to the category of people who do not fit into the usual framework. He managed not only to fulfill all his dreams, but also created a unique code of morality, implemented in his work and destiny. His literary heritage is not too great, but it concentrates the main thing that worried the author all his life - faith in the unlimited possibilities of man. To this maxim he went straight and consistently all his life. Even in childhood, two of his main hobbies appeared: literature and aviation. From the age of six, he began to write poetry, and at the Lyceum he received the nickname "lunatic" for his dreamy appearance and an irresistible need to look at the sky for a long time. Later, he deliberately turns down many career opportunities and chooses aviation forever. The profession of a pilot gives Exupery a happy opportunity to see the world in a way that most people are not given, and at the same time test themselves in the most dangerous and difficult situations. “Before you write, you need to live,” says Exupery, and his books fully reflect this life experience.
His dates
- June 22, 1900: born in Lyon (the third of five children in the family).
- 1921: enrolls in a fighter aviation regiment in Strasbourg. n 1926: publishes the short story The Pilot.
- 1927: Starts working for a postal company; he is appointed head of the airfield in Morocco, where he writes the novel Southern Postal.
- 1930: Recipient of the Chevalier Order of the Legion of Honor. He writes "Night Flight" and meets Consuelo Sunsin.
- 1931: marries Consuelo.
- 1935: As a correspondent for the Paris Soir newspaper, he comes to the USSR. Crashes in the Libyan desert.
- 1936: On January 1, Exupery and his mechanic are rescued by Bedouins. First notes for the philosophical utopia "Citadel".
- 1939: Land of the People is published. Receives the "Great Prize of the Novel" of the French Academy.
- 1942: writes The Little Prince.
- 1943: Joins his squadron in Algiers.
- 31 July 1944: last flight. His plane was shot down near Corsica.
Keys to understanding
remember childhood
Not being a psychoanalyst, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry unmistakably understood the significance of childhood experiences for a person's future life. The beginning of his own path was extremely happy. He wrote: “Where am I from? I am from my childhood. I came from childhood, as from a country.” Later, over time, from the height of great life experience, he confessed: “The world of childhood memories, our language and our games will always seem to me infinitely more real than any other ... I’m not very sure that I lived after the past childhood".
The cult of friendship
Dedicating The Little Prince to Léon Werth "when he was a little boy," Exupery explains: "I have a good reason for this: this adult is my best friend." The circle of his friends is vast and varied, and they all remembered Exupery as a person, any communication with whom became an event and for whom loyalty to his comrades was not a duty, but an internal need. His life credo: "True friendship cannot be preached, it is learned in action."
Life as a symbol of faith
He confessed in a letter to his mother: “I have just been reading the Bible a little… What simplicity and power of style! And how much poetry! And the commandments, occupying a good twenty-five pages, are masterpieces of legislation and common sense. And everywhere moral laws are revealed in their inevitability and beauty: and this is magnificent!” All those around him are unanimous in their opinion about his moral impeccability, but meanwhile it is difficult for him to talk about his inner life: "it keeps some sense of shame." But at the same time, he admits: “The inner life is the only thing that matters to me. I - such as I am - should be sought in what I write. And through the figurative structure of his works, and directly, Exupery literally affirms his creed: “I believe that the cult of the Universal inspires, brings individual values into one knot, creates the only real order; this order is life itself.
Feast of overcoming
In order to come to work for the postal airline, Exupery had to overcome the inertia of a serene childhood, a well-to-do youth, and class habits. And his whole life will be a chain of overcoming. In literature, he will abandon romantic beauties for the sake of the truth of life, and in life he will choose the most difficult routes. Even in mortal danger, he continued to observe the world around him and, overcoming fear and despair, asserted: "Life is a holiday."
Books by Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- "Southern postal and others." AST, 2003.
- "A little prince". Eksmo, 2006.
- "Citadel". AST, 2006.
- "The Little Prince", audiobook, mp3. 1C Publishing, Melodiya, 2006.
His short life was not easy: at the age of four he lost his father, who belonged to the dynasty of counts, and his mother took care of all the upbringing. During his entire career as a pilot, he suffered 15 accidents, was seriously injured several times, being on the verge of death. However, despite all this, Exupery was able to leave his mark on history not only as an excellent pilot, but also as a writer who gave the world, for example, The Little Prince.
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born in the French city of Lyon to Count Jean-Marc Saint-Exupery, who was an insurance inspector, and his wife Marie Bois de Foncolombe. The family came from an old family of Perigord nobles.
Young writer. (Pinterest)
At first, the future writer studied in Mance, at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix. After that - in Sweden in Friborg in a Catholic guesthouse. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in the Department of Architecture. In October 1919, he enrolled as a volunteer at the National Higher School of Fine Arts in the Department of Architecture.
The turning point in his fate was 1921 - then he was drafted into the army in France. At first, he is assigned to a work team at repair shops, but soon he manages to pass the exam for a civilian pilot.
In January 1923, the first plane crash happened to him, he received a head injury. After Exupery he moved to Paris, where he devoted himself to writing. However, in this field, at first he was not successful and was forced to take on any job: he traded cars, was a salesman in a bookstore.
Only in 1926, Exupery found his calling - he became a pilot for the Aeropostal company, which delivered mail to the northern coast of Africa.
Pilot. (Pinterest)
On October 19, 1926, he was appointed head of the Cap Juby intermediate station, on the very edge of the Sahara. Here he writes his first work - "Southern Postal". In March 1929, Saint-Exupery returned to France, where he entered the higher aviation courses of the navy in Brest. Soon, Gallimard's publishing house published the novel Southern Postal, and Exupery left for South America.
In 1930, Saint-Exupery was promoted to the Knights of the Legion of Honor for his contribution to the development of civil aviation. In the same year, Saint-Exupery wrote "Night Flight" and met his future wife, Consuelo from El Salvador.
In the spring of 1935, Antoine became a correspondent for the Paris-Soir newspaper. He was sent on a business trip to the USSR. After the trip, Antoine wrote and published the essay Crime and Punishment in the Face of Soviet Justice. This work was the first Western publication in which the author made an attempt to comprehend and understand Stalin's strict regime.
Soon, Saint-Exupery becomes the owner of his own aircraft C. 630 "Simun" and on December 29, 1935, he makes an attempt to set a record for the flight Paris - Saigon, but crashes in the Libyan desert, narrowly avoiding death.
An officer. (Pinterest)
In January 1938, Exupery went to New York. Here he moves on to work on the book "The Planet of the People". On February 15, he begins the flight New York - Tierra del Fuego, but suffers a serious accident in Guatemala, after which he recovers his health for a long time, first in New York, and then in France.
During World War II, Saint-Exupery made several sorties on the Block-174 aircraft, performing aerial reconnaissance missions, and was presented with the Military Cross award. In June 1941, after the defeat of France, he moved to his sister in the unoccupied part of the country, and later left for the United States. He lived in New York, where, among other things, he wrote his most famous book, The Little Prince.
On July 31, 1944, Saint-Exupéry left the Borgo airfield on the island of Corsica on a reconnaissance flight and did not return. For a long time, nothing was known about his death, and they thought that he had crashed in the Alps. And only in 1998, in the sea near Marseille, one fisherman discovered a bracelet.
A Saint-Exupéry bracelet found by a fisherman near Marseille. (Pinterest)
In May 2000, diver Luc Vanrel announced that he had found the wreckage of an aircraft at a depth of 70 meters, possibly belonging to Saint-Exupery. The remains of the aircraft were scattered over a strip a kilometer long and 400 meters wide.
Monument to Antoine de Saint-Exupery in Tarfay. (Pinterest)
In 2008, 86-year-old German Luftwaffe veteran Horst Rippert claimed that it was he who shot down Antoine de Saint-Exupery in his Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter. According to Rippert, he confessed in order to clear the name of Saint-Exupery from charges of desertion or suicide. According to him, he would not have fired if he knew who was at the controls of the enemy aircraft. However, the pilots who served with Rippert express doubts about the veracity of his words.
Now the recovered fragments of Exupery's plane are in the Museum of Aviation and Cosmonautics in Le Bourget.
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry is a writer, poet and professional aviator.
Born in the French city of Lyon on the street. Peira, 8, in the family of the insurance inspector Count Jean-Marc Saint-Exupery (1863-1904) and his wife Marie Bois de Foncolombe. The family came from an old family of Perigord nobles. Antoine (his home nickname was "Tonio") was the third of five children. When Antoine was 4 years old, his father died of an intracerebral hemorrhage.
In 1908, Exupery entered the School of the Christian Brothers of St. Bartholomew, then, together with his brother Francois, studied at the Jesuit College of Sainte-Croix in Le Mans (until 1914), in 1914-1915 the brothers studied at the Jesuit College of Notre-Dame-de-Mongré in Villefranche-sur-Saone, after which they continued their studies in Friborg (Switzerland) at the Marist College of Villa-Saint-Jean (until 1917), when Antoine successfully passed the baccalaureate exam. In 1917, François died of rheumatic heart disease, his death shocked Antoine. In October 1917, Antoine, preparing to enter Ecole Naval, took a preparatory course at Ecole Bossu, the Lycee Saint-Louis, then, in 1918, at the Lycee Lacanal, but in June 1919 he failed the oral entrance exam. In October 1919, he enrolled as a volunteer at the National High School of Fine Arts in the department of architecture.
In 1921 he was drafted into the army. Having interrupted the deferment received upon admission to the university, Antoine enrolled in the 2nd Fighter Aviation Regiment in Strasbourg. At first he was assigned to a work team at repair shops, but soon he managed to pass the exam for a civilian pilot. Exupery was transferred to Morocco, where he received the rights of a military pilot. In 1922, Antoine graduated from courses for reserve officers in Avora and received the rank of second lieutenant. In October he was assigned to the 34th Aviation Regiment at Bourges near Paris. In 1923, the first plane crash happened to him, Exupery received a head injury. In March, he was commissioned. He moved to Paris, where he took up literature.
In 1926, Exupery became a pilot for the Aeropostal company, which delivered mail to the northern coast of Africa. In the spring, he began working on the Toulouse-Casablanca line, then Casablanca-Dakar. In October, he was appointed head of the Cap Juby intermediate station (Villa Bens city) on the very edge of the Sahara. Here he wrote his first work - the novel "Southern Post".
In 1929, Saint-Exupery returned to France and entered the higher aviation courses of the navy in Brest. Soon the Gallimard publishing house released his novel, and Exupery went to South America as technical director of Aeropostal - Argentina. In 1930, Saint-Exupery was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor for his contribution to the development of civil aviation. In June, he participated in the search for his friend, the pilot Henri Guillaume, who had an accident while flying over the Andes. In the same year, Saint-Exupery wrote the novel Night Flight and met his future wife from El Salvador.
When Saint-Exupery returned to France, he married Consuelo Sunsin (1901 - 1979), but the couple, as a rule, lived separately. In 1931 Aeropostal went bankrupt. Saint-Exupery returned to the postal line France - Africa. In October, Night Flight was released, for which the writer was awarded the Femina Literary Prize.
Antoine continued to fly and suffered several accidents. Participated in the war of 1939 against Germany. July 31, 1944 Exupery went on a reconnaissance flight and did not return.
